HELSINKI — A Chinese state-owned company performed a rocket flight aimed at testing reentry and landing burns late Saturday without announcing the outcome.
The Longxing-2 test article lifted off at around 10:00 p.m. Eastern, Jan. 18 (0300 UTC, Jan. 19) from a makeshift launch area near Haiyang, Shandong province.
Longxing-2 is thought to be a test article for the Long March 12A reusable launcher being developed by the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology (SAST). The rocket was designed to replicate the first stage of a reusable flight, reaching around 75 kilometers before performing a reentry burn and making a powered descent and splashdown into the Yellow Sea.
Amateur footage captured from near the launch area showed the rocket rise very slowly from the tower and perform an ascent phase with no apparent anomalies. The test was intended to build on a successful 12-kilometer-altitude vertical takeoff, vertical landing (VTVL) test performed in June 2024.
SAST published results and footage from the June test, but has so far remained silent on the 75-km attempt, being yet to publish any results or details of the flight more than 24 hours after liftoff. The lack of official updates raises questions about the success of the test, which could indicate challenges during reentry or landing phases.
Still wait for the official result. pic.twitter.com/XyQLWon0rO
— Ace of Razgriz (@raz_liu) January 19, 2025
State-owned SAST is one of a range of entities in China developing reusable launch vehicles. Reusability—first demonstrated by SpaceX for orbital launches—could help China reduce costs and increase its flight cadence. This appears crucial to the country being able to construct megaconstellations such as Guowang and Thousand Sails, and could also play a part in crewed lunar, lunar infrastructure and space-based solar power projects.
China made 68 launch attempts last year, all using expendable rockets. A large number of these were made by older, highly toxic hypergolic Long March series rockets. The country was aiming for around 100 launches, including state-owned and commercial companies.
The Longxing-2 test article is understood to be powered by methane-liquid oxygen engines developed by commercial firm Jiuzhou Yunjian (JZYJ). SAST and JZYJ collaborated on earlier, undisclosed vertical takeoff, vertical landing tests.
SAST is a branch of the state-owned China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), the country’s main space contractor. CASC is understood to have made methane-liquid oxygen engine technology available to commercial entities to develop engines, which SAST appears to be utilizing.
CASC, meanwhile, is developing more powerful and complex full flow staged combustion methalox engines for its Long March 9 super heavy-lift rocket.
SAST launched its expendable, kerosene-liquid oxygen Long March 12 for the first time in November 2024. The 12A will also be a 3.8-meter-diameter launch vehicle but adapted for reusability.
The Long March 12A is just one of a number of the reusable launchers being developed in China. CASC is developing the reusable Long March 10 series for human spaceflight, as well as the aforementioned Long March 9 and 12A.
Commercial entities are working towards first flights of several rockets this year, including the Zhuque-3 (Landspace), Tianlong-3 (Space Pioneer), Pallas-1 (Galactic Energy) and Kinetica-2 (CAS Space). All are intended to be made reusable at different stages. These are among a wider range of Chinese launch vehicles slated for debut flights in 2025.
China is also expanding its spaceports to help ease a bottleneck in access to launch infrastructure. This includes the Dongfeng Commercial Space Innovation Test Area at Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, northwest China, and the Wenchang Commercial Space Launch Site on Hainan island, south China. The latter has two launch pads ready, and work on third and fourth pads is to be accelerated this year, according to China News Service, Jan. 17. The spaceport could host up to 10 pads in the future. Haiyang, from where the Longxing-2 launched, hosts China’s sea launch facilities. Last week it hosted a Jielong-3 solid propellant rocket launch and aims to facilitate around 10 launches across 2025.
